Most of us have regrets in our lives and for quite a number of people their regret is that they wish they hadn’t quit piano lessons when they were a child. If you are one of those people, then regret no longer, retirement is a great time to learn again.
If you are one of those people that have tried to remember what they learned but simply can’t, then I strongly advise you to find a piano teacher to start you from the beginning again. Once you get started you may find that you start remembering a few things although it really doesn’t matter.
Maybe you had enough lessons as a kid and even though you haven’t played for many years, you believe that you still remember most of what you learned. You feel that you don’t need a piano teacher because you think that you can figure out and piece together what you don’t know.
But where do you start?
I would recommend starting with what you already remember. Do you still have your piano books from when you were a child? Its surprising but there is a lot of people hanging on their music books from when they were young. I not only have my original piano books but I even have piano music that belonged to my maternal grandfather and my paternal grandmother.
So if you have your original piano books from when you were young, pull them out. They are a great place to start because they will help you remember what you were taught and they may even help trigger some long forgotten information.
Are you in the category of people that you don’t have your original piano books but remember what it was called? This sounds a little crazy but a lot of the piano tutor books that were around in the 1960’s are still readily available and you could buy it at your local music store. Obviously there are no guarantees but it would be worthwhile to at least checking it out.
If you find that the piano books that you used as a child are no longer available then I would recommend going to a music store that has quite a selection of print music available for piano and take your time and have a good browse and ask questions. They will probably be very helpful because I find that most staff in a music store are not your ordinary retail workers, they all have some knowledge about a few instruments, so if they can’t help you they will find the right person to come and help you.
There are some piano books that are specifically designed for adult learners and while most of them are good, none of them are essential. The piano books that are designed for kids are quite good too, although I would stay away from the colourful, flashy ones. I think these type of piano books are more about being fun for the young piano student and less about quality explanations and information.
The piano books that I always have detested are those piano books where they put the names of the notes printed onto the actual note. I believe the theory is that if you see the name of the note on the actual note, many times with many pieces of music that you will learn quickly what the names of the notes are. I completely disagree with this and I have never once found it helpful for a student to learn to recognize and name the individual notes and I have taught hundreds of students over a few decades.
If you find that revisiting what you have learned many years ago is not working well for you then I would advise that you find a piano teacher to help you remember. You may only need a few months worth of lessons to get you going.
No matter what your circumstances are, I just want to encourage you to pursue learning or re-learning to play the piano in retirement. Don’t let any possible regrets from the past prevent you from moving forward.